We are your eyes over earth and sea

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Mission 1 : Securing SOUTH AFRICA’s Water

South Africa is losing billions of cubic metres of freshwater to invasive alien vegetation every year.

Our Story

We are proud to have begun development of UA Alpha - Africa’s first hydrogen powered aircraft. When development is complete, we will embark on a mission to protect South Africa’s rich natural resources, starting with protecting our water sources from thirsty alien vegetation.

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Our

Aircraft

UA Alpha is a long-range, long-endurance survey and reconnaissance unmanned aircraft. It is designed to carry advanced sensors onboard, like hyperspectral imagers and RADAR. These sensors return detailed information on the terrain below. The data is used to survey environmental variables that help us manage fire, pollution, erosion, alien vegetation and plant diseases. Alpha is also designed to monitor physical infrastructure like roads, bridges, pipelines and powerlines.

Our

Mission

Government and organizations like the WWF are responsible for implementing strategies to ensure our sustainability. Without detailed information like land cover and use, spread of alien vegetation and the condition of our coastline, we cannot effectively implement plans that keeps our environment healthy and contributing towards a growing economy. UA Alpha will fly these missions and gather the data these organizations require in order to perform detailed analysis resulting in effective environmental management.

Your

Contribution

We are passionate about Alpha and piloting towards achieving Mission One's objective: Work with national and international partners to survey South Africa's strategic water source areas. These areas cover 8% of our land surface, yet supply 50% of South Africa's freshwater. And we are losing it at over one billion cubic metres per year to thirsty invasive plants. This equates to almost the entire capacity of the Vaal Dam.